An 'e-ticket' may soon take on new meaning locally

Twenty-first century technology may soon change the way citations are written by Greencastle City Police.

A new Electronic Citation and Warning System (eCWS), designed to lessen the time police officers spend working accident scenes and writing tickets, could be coming to the City of Greencastle.

City Police Chief Tom Sutherlin has been granted authority by the Greencastle Board of Public Works and Safety to apply for a grant through the Indiana Supreme Court Division of State Court Administration to fund the program.

The equipment is free, Sutherlin said, explaining he is applying to equip up to 12 patrol cars with scanners and printers and possibly laptop computers to run the program.

The e-ticket program works by a police officer scanning a driver's license, which automatically downloads the information on the license into the computer database.

That will make "officers' time on the street working accidents and writing tickets much more effective and improve officer safety," Sutherlin said.

In making a motion for approval to seek the grant, Board of Works member Trudy Selvia suggested the program will soon be essential to law enforcement.

"I think it's going to be mandated before long," said Selvia, an attorney by trade.

That's likely since approximately one million traffic citations are issued in Indiana every year.

With eCWS, officers electronically record citation information in the field, eliminating the need for redundant manual data entry, drastically reducing administrative work, and increasing safety by quickly identifying dangerous drivers and reducing the time needed for a traffic stop.

Court Technology, the Bureau of Motor Vehicles, Indiana Criminal Justice Institute, Indiana State Police, Indiana Department of Natural Resources, Indiana State Excise Police and local law enforcement agencies worked together to give law enforcement officers statewide the ability to produce tickets electronically at the time of a traffic stop.

The eCWS system is currently being used by Indiana State Police officers statewide and officers in more than 300 other law enforcement agencies.

Advantages of the system are seen as including that it:

-- Eliminates handwritten tickets and the need to enter the same information into a separate database(s).

-- Enhances safety of streets and highways by identifying dangerous drivers quickly.

-- Eliminates duplicate entries by law enforcement, courts, clerks, ISP and BMV.

-- Increases accuracy of information -- data fields pre-populated from license and registration,

-- Reduces errors because data is not retyped multiple times.

-- Gives officers more time to patrol by reducing paperwork.

-- Saves clerical time for clerks, courts and agencies because data is transferred electronically.

-- Improves timeliness by making data available electronically.

No timetable was provided for when the fate of the GPD application might be known or how long it might take to outfit the 12 police vehicles with the electronic equipment.

Selvia's motion to approve the application was seconded by new board member Craig Tuggle, a Crown Industries engineer, who succeeds Thom Morris on the three-member panel. Mayor Bill Dory serves as the third voting member.